Note: This is a seattlepi.com reader blog. It is not written or edited by the P-I. The authors are solely responsible for content. E-mail us at newmedia@seattlepi.com if you consider a post inappropriate.

There is a running joke based on an amusing animated video in which a concerned biologist is trying to talk to Miami Seaquarium owner Arthur Hertz about Lolita, the captive orca. In the cartoon Hertz keeps saying “You are an activist!” in an attempt to nullify the arguments and discredit the biologist, but which only succeeds in the Hertz character making itself look dumb. In real life, the theme park’s attempt to label concerned individuals as activists and sweep everyone under the same rug is an old tactic that just doesn’t work in the digital age, an age when people everywhere can learn and communicate in near real time, and in an age when anyone with a cell phone or camera can record, document, and share what is going on in these amusement parks.

The tide of public sentiment has turned against keeping whales in captivity in such appalling conditions , and ‘activists’ are everywhere expressing this in creative ways, showing that making a difference may be as simple as picking up a phone as this teen activist does:

Or with a video camera as this adult activist does, first in 1995, but recently updated:

Or with video editing skills as this activist shows:

“She [Lolita] had a very hard time. She just barely floated. The skin on her back cracked and bled from the sun and wind exposure. She wouldn’t eat the diet of frozen herring.

Note: This is a seattlepi.com reader blog. It is not written or edited by the P-I. The authors are solely responsible for content. E-mail us at newmedia@seattlepi.com if you consider a post inappropriate.